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Johnson holds more than 80 patents, with more than 20 pending, the company said, which said sales of the Super Soaker have approached nearly $1 billion.

His career has been super interesting and varied, here is a section from Wikipedia:

Career

Resume

• 1978–79: “U.S. Air Force Weapons Laboratory, acting chief of Space Nuclear Power Safety section”
• 1979–82: “Jet Propulsion Laboratory, senior systems engineer, Galileo Project”
• 1982–85: “U.S. Air Force, Advanced Space Systems Requirements manager for non-nuclear strategic weapons technology”
• 1985–87: “U.S. Air Force, Strategic Air Command, chief of data management branch”
• 1987–91: “Engineer on Mariner Mark ll Spacecraft series for Comet Rendezvous and Saturn Orbiter Probe missions”
• 1991-: “Johnson Research and Development Co., Inc., founder and president”

After college, Johnson joined the U.S. Air Force, where he worked on the stealth bomber program. Later, he worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab with the nuclear power source for the Galileo mission to Jupiter.More recently, he teamed up with scientists from Tulane University and Tuskegee University to develop a method of transforming heat into electricity with the goal of making green energy more affordable.

Two of Johnson’s companies, Excellatron Solid State and Johnson Electro-Mechanical Systems (JEMS), are developing technology. Excellatron is introducing thin-film batteries, a new generation of rechargeable battery technology. JEMS has developed the Johnson Thermo-Electrochemical Converter System (JTEC), listed by Popular Mechanics as one of the top 10 inventions of 2009. This system has potential applications in solar power plants and ocean thermal power generation. It converts thermal energy to electrical energy using a non-steam process which works by pushing hydrogen ions through two membranes, with claimed advantages over alternative systems. The companies operate a research laboratory in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood of Atlanta.

Johnson is a “part of a small group of African-American inventors whose work accounts for 6 percent of all U.S. patent applications.”

The Super Soaker was a super cool invention but with such a high profile career it’s hardly even it’s the highlight!

Amazing!

Read more here on Aazah.com: http://bit.ly/1sBzYWw

DID YOU KNOW?: Lonnie Johnson features in Volume 3 of our Black History Flashcards, dedicated to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics Check them out and learn more here.

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